As I, myself, got into comics, partciularly DC Comics, through the avenue of the DCAnimated Universe of Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and the rest of their crew, I have been nothing if not a loyal fan to DC. I have for some time been regularly purchasing the vast majority of their core line. Prior to Flashpoint, I was basically getting a couple team books, the GL books, any events, and maybe an odd one here an there. But as the New 52 progressed, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to hop on more and more series. Relaunching the line with 52 new #1 issues would have been a solid move, had they not also simultaneously reboooted continuity. What I absolutely abhor about the concept of the reboot is that any potential dangling plot threads from priior to Flashpoint were made so they could no longer be explored. Alan Scott was ruling a magical city on the moon, Vril Dox had brokered peace throughout the majority of the universe, Lex Luthor had transcended his body and become godlike by Action Comics #104. Black Adamâs saga had been continuing steadily here and there since Infinite Crisis. And this barely scratches the surface. Iâve always hoped that DCwould come up with a way to bring us back there, and weâve gotten a few false hopes up, such as Convergence and Rebirth, but we are still essentially within the same exact continuity we have been in since Flashpoint. The versions of many characters that have appeared since Flashpoint are notably different from previous versions. There are also several characters who have returned from the dead for no other reason than that they had rebooted so they could use them.
As I was originally saying , Iâve put up with DC throughout all this to the point where Iâm still buying most of their core line, a ridiculously smalller amounnt of Marvel books, and nothing from any smalller publihsers, as my interests are extremely mainstream. However, the state of the DCU continues to appear dismal. While I had hoped that Rebirth would eventually give resurgence to pre-Flashpoint continuiity, addinig aspects of New 52 in where possible, Johnsâ original Rebirth plans seem to have been supplanted by plans by writers such as Tom King an Scott Snyder, which were originally said to be meant to support Rebirth going side by side. Iâm not saying that Kinâgâs or maybe even a couple of Snyderâs ideas are bad, but they seem to have taken over from the Rebirth stuff when it comes to editorial direction.
So what I have been trying to say, but keep winding up on tangents, is that while Marvel takes up a relatively smal l portion of my pull list, due to my loyalty to DC plus my nature as an uber-completionist, I find myself thoroughly enjoying basically any given Marvel book I have read in the past several years, and wishing I had room for more of them on my pull list, while most of DCâs content has been quite mediocre. I remember really enjoying Greg Ruckaâs Wonder Woman run at the beginning of Rebirth, but looking back, canât recall it being on par with the books Marvel puts out. Joshua Williamsonâs current Flash run is dragging on and doesnât bring the bang I desire, as an example I can think of off the top of my head. So yes, I agree, Marvel has been consistently telling better stories
Yes, there were some DCseries that were sub -par immediately prior to the New 52. The name Teen Titans comes to mind. However, most of the series were quite solid. There were also plans for several future series spinning out of Brightest Day and other events that had a ton of potential, that were reworked into lesser stories due to the launch of the New 52. These included Aquaman, Hawkman, Swamp Thing, Firestorm, Justice League Internatinoal, and Deathstroke. While not all the New 52 versions of these series we ended up with were bad, or even lacking greatness, the New 52 clearly hurt plans editorial had had in place.
I would like to wrap this post up by explaining why it is wrong to refere to the period of continuity that I prefer as âpost -Crisisâ rather that âpre-Flashpointâ. Post - Crisis includes everything DC has done since hte mid- to late eigthies through the present and on infinitely into the future, while PreâFlashpoint referes to anything from the dawn of the Golden Age throug h Augustf of 2011, stopping there. It is current continuity I despise so, and at its core, the whole of continuity prior to the end of Flashpoint that I wish restored. Because while the original Crisis did have some adverse efffects on the DCU, such as Superman having to meet all of his enemies again for the first time and several of said enemies getting completely reworked, basically all of these undesireable efffects were reversed by the end of Infinite Crisis, which came out about the time I came to the DCU.